the spies spotted ¹  a man leaving the city. They said to him, “If you show us a secret entrance into the city, we will reward you.”

So I will no longer remove before them any of the nations that Joshua left unconquered when he died.

When he reached Seirah, ¹  he blew a trumpet ²  in the Ephraimite hill country. The Israelites went down with him from the hill country, with Ehud in the lead. ³ 

The Lord did as he asked. ¹  When he got up the next morning, he squeezed the fleece, and enough dew dripped from it to fill a bowl. ² 

When Gaal son of Ebed came out and stood at the entrance to the city’s gate, Abimelech and his men got up from their hiding places.

he took his men ¹  and divided them into three units and set an ambush in the field. When he saw the people coming out of the city, ²  he attacked and struck them down. ³ 

The Benjaminites attacked from Gibeah and struck down twenty-two thousand Israelites that day. ¹ 

Then the Benjaminites said, “They are defeated just as before.” But the Israelites said, “Let’s retreat ¹  and lure them ²  away from the city into the main roads.”

But when the signal, a pillar of smoke, began to rise up from the city, the Benjaminites turned around and saw the whole city going up in a cloud of smoke that rose high into the sky. ¹ 

Now as she and her two daughters-in-law began to leave the place where she had been living to return to the land of Judah, ¹ 

He said, “May you be rewarded ¹  by the Lord, my dear! ²  This act of devotion ³  is greater than what you did before. ⁴  For you have not sought to marry ⁵  one of the young men, whether rich or poor. ⁶ 

Then the men of Israel left Mizpah and chased the Philistines, striking them down all the way to an area below Beth Car.

When they came to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, “Come on, let’s head back before my father quits worrying about the donkeys and becomes anxious about us!”

Then Samuel set out and went up from Gilgal ¹  to Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin. ²  Saul mustered the army that remained with him; there were about six hundred men.

When they ¹  made themselves known to the Philistine garrison, the Philistines said, “Look! The Hebrews are coming out of the holes in which they hid themselves.”

¹ David prevailed over the Philistine with just the sling and the stone. He struck down the Philistine and killed him. David did not even have a sword in his hand. ² 

The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid! What have you seen?” The woman replied to Saul, “I have seen one like a god ¹  coming up from the ground!”

So David lived in the fortress and called it the City of David. David built all around it, from the terrace inwards.

When the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, some of David’s soldiers ¹  fell in battle. Uriah the Hittite also died.

The elders of his house stood over him and tried to lift him from the ground, but he was unwilling, and refused to eat food with them.